Another Brick in the Wall

 

On Being Retired

 In 2014, I turned 67 years old and in January of 2015, my wife and I had retired.  I retired with full benefits, she retired with reduced benefits at 62 and as not eligible for Medicare until age 65.  Cobra Health Insurance was available but very expensive.

During the last three year of my working career, I worked for a local university and intentionally set aside money during those three years in the exact amount that I needed to pay for Cobra insurance so that she could retire early.

With health insurance covered, our house mortgage paid for and since we had no other debt, all we needed was enough money to pay our monthly expenses.

Combined our Social Security was $3,000 and our monthly expenses were $2,500 so there was plenty of money left over about $5,000 to cover the cost of two weeks at Myrtle Beach.

Also, during our last three years before retirement, we installed an 24-foot round above ground swimming pool, build a huge deck around the pool, had a large gazebo built, and brought in a hot tub.  We created our own little vacation area in case we did not have the money to go anywhere.

My wife had purchased a cancer insurance policy for $10/month and when I got cancer at the age of 60 and she contracted cancer about 4 years later, we received $20,000 each to pay for initial expenses and then as long as we received treatment, we got another $10,000 each year.

I am 76 now, and have been receiving $10,000 each year for 15 years.  According to the cancer that I have, I will continue to receive treatments until I die as it never goes away.

From 2015 until around 2020 when COVID hit, my wife and I travelled all over from Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, the USA, to Europe, including taking 8 cruises covering the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

We travelled so much that now we don't really want to go anywhere except Myrtle Beach.  

When I turn 80 my wife will be 75 and I doubt we will even go to Myrtle Beach.

• We have been retired for 10 years now and have loved every minute of it.
• We wake up whenever we want to or whenever the cats decide we need to be up, unless we have an early morning doctor's appointment.
• We both have hobbies and have something to keep us busy and entertained all the time.
• We exercise daily and eat a healthy diet that includes no red meat, no alcohol, plenty of fruits and vegetables and in my case plenty of beans and lentils.
• We go out to eat once a week and purchase pretty much anything that we want or need although, we have OUTGROWN WANTING STUFF,
• We have been saving money, looking deals, and using coupons for the 30 years we have been married, so it is just natural for us to continue the process in retirement.
• We planned for our retirement - it just did not happen.

Mississippi Queen

 

Longest Range Hydrogen Car

Hydrogen automotive technology has long been a vision for a green future in cars. The modern basis of fuel cell technology was invented all the way back in 1932, and the discovery that hydrogen could generate electricity at all happened in the 1800s. In 1966, Chevrolet introduced the Electrovan, the world's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered motor vehicle.


It was originally designed to be a Corvair, but the engineers realized the hydrogen storage system would be too massive to fit into a sedan, and instead opted to use a Chevy Handivan to hold the tanks and fuel cell. Chevy never released the Electrovan as a production car, as the technology was simply impractical in terms of efficiency and in terms of hydrogen fuel infrastructure. Hydrogen cars lay dormant for nearly 30 years afterward, until Toyota began its now-massive hydrogen program in 1992.     READ MORE...

Connected

 

Change in the USA

 Life in the United States is changing and while some believe it is for the better, others believe it is for the worse.

What do I believe?

I don't believe either way...  because change is inevitable, and it does not matter if that change is good or bad because it will change again...

The thing about change is that it is always SHORT TERM...  change never really lasts that long, especially when all younger generations REJECT the societies that their parents created.

Look at marriage in the USA...  for the last 10 years, the divorce rate has remained at 50% which means both MALES & FEMALES wanted change...  I say that because not all divorces are initiated by the female because their husbands cheated...  wives are cheating as well.

After WWII, the USA wanted to build a strong military so that it could take care of the rest of the world...  and, because other countries did not appreciate what the USA was trying to do, they rebelled.

Now we have generation that does not want to build a strong military.  Their reasons for this are varied but basically, they do not want to go to war and do not want to send money to countries who are engaged in war.  Instead, they want to spend that money on social programs here at home.

There was a recent study conducted by someone whose results yielded the fact that a majority of Americans 18-35 years old, do not believe in DEMOCRACY and want to change into SOCIALISM.

These people will soon hold positions of leadership if they are not there already.

The USA will change again.

Spiral

 

Corporate ESG is Collapsing

ESG, or “Environment, Social, and Governance,” is the new feel-good buzzword in the halls of global corporations and megabanks. It’s a PR push to cloak morally disastrous firms in a veneer of social and environmental responsibility — lip service — but at the end of the day, I believe the market will speak.


If ESG initiatives cause these companies to bleed money, they’ll start pulling back, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. Although the ESG trend is far from dead, I doubt it was ever really about being profitable…it makes more sense as a set of PR initiatives and feel-good public-private partnerships where neoliberal institutions, bureaucrats, and megacorporations can pat one another on the back for being “environmentally and socially-conscious.”     READ MORE...

Start Me Up

 

In The NEWS

The US plans to begin airdropping aid into Gaza in coming days.
President Joe Biden announced the decision Friday, a day after more than 100 Palestinians were reportedly killed and hundreds of others wounded during a string of events involving Israeli troops at an aid delivery route. Conflicting reports describe the cause of the incident and the subsequent casualties; the United Nations and European Union are pushing for an independent investigation.

Editor’s note: In Friday’s digest, we mischaracterized the chaotic scene in Gaza City described above. The number of deaths and injuries attributable to gunfire versus the crowd surge was at the time, and remains, unclear. See an overview here.



Thousands gather for Navalny's funeral in Moscow.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was laid to rest in Moscow Friday, drawing thousands of his supporters to pay tribute. Navalny died two weeks ago in an Arctic prison while serving multiple sentences for charges including extremism. Prison officials have claimed the 47-year-old died of sudden death syndrome, a catch-all term for various causes of cardiac arrest.



Fashion icon and New York designer Iris Apfel dies at 102.
Apfel, a self-described "geriatric starlet," was known for her eclectic style and oversized glasses (see photos). She had nearly 3 million followers on her Instagram, was the subject of a 2014 documentary called "Iris," and once had her clothes featured in an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Between 1950 to 1992, Iris owned an international textile firm with her late husband, Carl, and helped restore the White House for nine presidents. The cause of her death wasn't disclosed.



CVS, Walgreens to begin selling abortion pill mifepristone.
The pharmacy chains will start dispensing the pill as soon as next week in a phased rollout in states where it is legal. Mifepristone has been around for more than 20 years and is one of two drugs used for medically induced abortions. The Supreme Court will consider a lower court ruling this spring that weakened the Food and Drug Administration's 2016 and 2021 decisions to make the abortion pill widely available.



CDC officially ends five-day COVID-19 quarantine guidance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer requires people to stay at home for five days after testing positive for COVID-19. The agency said people don't need to quarantine if they have been fever-free and without symptoms for at least 24 hours and take precautionary measures, like wearing a mask. The new guidance is similar to recommendations for other common viruses, like the flu.



Boeing in talks to buy fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems.
The Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems was previously owned by Boeing until a spin-off in 2005. Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems have been under scrutiny for a door panel blowout during an Alaska Airlines flight in January and quality issues surrounding Boeing 737 Max models. Spirit AeroSystems is also considering selling its Northern Ireland business, which supplies parts to Boeing's rival Airbus.



New slug species discovered off southwest coast of UK.
The new slug species, named Pleurobranchaea britannica, is between two and five centimeters long and is a type of side-gill sea slug. The slugs were first found in 2018 and 2019 by researchers from the UK and Spain but identified as a new species only recently, according to an announcement Friday.

SOURCE:  1440 News

2024 Election

 It would appear that our next Presidential Election will be a re-match between Trump and Biden.

Biden sincerely believes that since he beat Trump once, he can beat him again.

Trump sincerely believes that despite his 91 felony indictments, that he will be the GOP choice for President.

Trump also believes that he is a victim of ELECTION INTERFERENCE by the Democratic Party, aided by the mainstream media, the DOJ and the FBI - two government agencies weaponized by the Democrats.

Trump has to put up a HALF BILLION DOLLARS before he can even appeal his lates conviction that he committed FRAUD against the people of NYC.

Trump does not seem overly concerned about that which means, he probably has access to that money even though he may not like it.

A lot of experts believe that the Supreme Court, if they hear the case, will rule favor of Trump.  However, if they do not, Trump is still confident that despite what is happening to him, he will be elected President.

There is really no way of knowing what will happen, but if the independents elect Biden again because they dislike Trump, then they are really electing Kamala Harris to become our President, should anything happen to Joe.

It should not bother us that Kamala is a female but what should bother us, is her incompetence to even handle the job of VP.  If she is not VP material than how can she possible be POTUS material?

Even more alarming is that fact that the WORLD is getting considerably close to WWIII as a result of Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Hamas, Hezbollah, and China/Taiwan...  not to mention the fact that Iran and North Korea are very close to building a nuclear bomb.

A WEAK PRESIDENT ONLY ENCOURAGES THE ENEMIES OF THE USA TO BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE.

Liberals/Democrats/Progressives/Socialists do not believe that the rest of the world is stupid enough to begin WWIII...

However, NATO and the European Union do not agree with the liberals, democrats, progressives, and socialists...  and see what Russia and China are doing as a REAL THREAT.

Two other issues that seem to be escaping the minds of the voters are:

• Our increasing national debt 
• BRICS war on the US dollar

If we continue to spend and continue to increase our national debt there will come a point in time, where there is a good possibility that we default on our loan payment, or we start printing more money.  The latter will devalue the dollar and increase inflation.

More and more countries are joining BRICS and agreeing not to use the US dollar when buying goods/products from other countries, as was done in the past.

While this may not seem like a big deal, not using the US dollar causes the US dollar to lose value.  Since the US dollar is no longer backed by GOLD at FORT KNOX, its value is based upon people overseas wanting the US dollar.

In point of fact, if a weak person is elected to the Presidency in 2024, the rest of the world will take advantage of that in a variety of ways.  The first of which will be Russia sending a nuclear weapon to THEIR SPACE STATION to be used as an intimidation factor AGAINST THE USA.

Our enemies, using what we did to them, are finally going to start taking global control away from us.

Somewhat Political

 

Humanoid Robot Crew Operates India's Spacecraft

ISRO's Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) will ferry a humanoid robot to space on a test flight later this year and carry three astronauts next year. (Image credit: ISRO)



India is steadily inching toward the first uncrewed flight in its human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan (Sanskrit for "celestial vehicle"). Early last week, the nation's space agency successfully completed the final test to qualify the test flight's rocket engine, approving it to be capable of safely ferrying astronauts to space.


This engine test was the seventh of its kind in which flight conditions were simulated to assess the device's endurance and performance under normal, and abnormal, conditions including varying thrust and propellant tank pressure, officials said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb. 21). These tests are being carried out at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.


Since 2014, seven years after the Gaganyaan program was first initiated, ISRO has has been perfecting its homegrown flight hardware including engines, solid rocket boosters, crew escape systems and parachutes ahead of the uncrewed Gaganyaan-1 (G1) mission, tentatively scheduled for the third quarter of this year.  READ MORE...

Japan's Humanoid Robots

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
In partnership with NativePath
> Video game giant Electronic Arts lays off 670 employees, roughly 5% of its workforce, amid industrywide layoffs (More) | Universal Music Group begins previously announced layoffs across multiple company music labels (More)

> Héctor Ortiz, former MLB catcher and longtime Texas Rangers coach, dies of cancer at 54 (More) | Former WWE star Billy Jack Haynes charged with second-degree murder in connection with shooting death of his wife (More)

> Iowa's Caitlin Clark now 18 points from breaking all-time, men's or women's, NCAA basketball scoring record; Iowa takes on Ohio State Sunday to wrap up their regular season (More) | Clark declares for WNBA Draft, widely expected to be top pick (More)


Science & Technology
> Prostate cancer involves two distinct subtypes, new study finds; results may lead to more targeted treatments for the disease, which affects one in eight adult men (More)

> Brain waves during sleep help flush cellular waste from the brain during sleep; rhythmic movement of neurons pushes cerebrospinal fluid through tissue, supports links between high-quality sleep and health (More)

> Daddy longlegs species found to have a set of underdeveloped eyes as embryos; vestigial organs implying some types of the insect diversified earlier than previously thought (More)


Business & Markets
> US stocks markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.5%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.9%); Nasdaq and S&P 500 rise to all-time highs (More) | Key inflation metric—personal consumption expenditures price index—rose 2.8% year-over-year, the slowest annual pace since March 2021 (More)

> OpenAI faces investigation from US Securities and Exchange Commission over whether company's investors were misled (More) | US Commerce Department launches probe into potential national security risks of smart vehicles produced in China and otcountries (More)

> Weight Watchers shares drop 18% after Oprah Winfrey announces exit from company's board, plans to donate all her stock to a museum (More) | Humanoid robot startup Figure AI valued at $2.6B after raising funds from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, Amazon, OpenAI, and Microsoft (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

Illegal Immigrants

The USA has always prided itself over the fact that its doors are always open to LEGAL IMMIGRANTS - especially those who seek asylum or those who offer this country special or unique skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

However, the USA has always hunted down and deported any immigrant who illegally crossed to boarder UNTIL President Biden allowed a flood of illegal immigrants to cross our southern borders from Mexico.

For three years this has been allowed to take place and there are estimated to be TEN MILLION illegal immigrants in the USA.

Many of these illegal immigrants wanted to go north into sanctuary cities and states where it was believed that would be taken care of by local residents and local governments.

There is no vetting process for illegal immigrants so we all allowing criminals to enter our country.  It is also widely believed that South American countries are emptying their prisons and sending their inmate to the USA for us to deal with.

In addition to these criminals, members of Mexican Drug Cartels are also entering the USA along with citizens from:

• China
• Pakistan
• Iran
• Other countries in the Middle East
• Other countries in Africa

 How did these people get to Mexico to enter the USA illegally from countries OVER 3,000 MILES AWAY?

It is estimated that over 30,000 Chinese Military Age males have entered this country...  and it is doubtful they seek asylum or came her to work.

It is estimated that about 100,000 military age males from the Middle East who are suspected TERRORISTS have entered the USA as well.  What do you think they are here for?

Most of these ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS:

• don't speak English
• have no technical skills
• have not been immanentized against diseases
• have no means of financial support
• if they get sick they will drain hospital resources

WHO DO WE TAKE CARE OF FIRST???

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS\

OR 

AMERICAN CITIZENS...

Non English speaking children will be sent to our schools and how do we propose to teach them if our teachers don't speak Spanish?

Do we hire translators for all these classes reducing our educational budgets?

How do you think Americans are going to feel when these alleged TERRORISTS start committing terrorist activities and we don't have enough law enforcement to protect our citizens?

Are we going to enlist the National Guard?

Are we going to send in the US Military?

AND WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THESE ILLEGALS WHEN HUMANOID ROBOTS START TAKING AWAY AMERICAN JOBS?

Through the Tunnel

 

Cuba to Join BRICS

Following the expansion announcement at its 2023 annual summit, all eyes have been set on who could eventually join the BRICS collective. Subsequently, with its global cooperations growing by the day, that list has started to take shape. Amid recent discussions with Russia, could Cuba be set to join & accept BRICS currency in 2024?

Indeed, those expansionary theories have coincided with the BRICS development of its local currencies. Although its embrace of de-dollarization and promotion of local currencies has been integrated, its work on its native assets continues. For the nations seeking to join the alliance within this calendar year, the development of that currency could play a crucial role.     READ MORE...

A Day in the Life

 

The Wind Cries Mary